Human infections caused by the obligate intracellular pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis have a marked impact on human health. C. trachomatis serovariants are the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted disease and infectious preventable blindness. Despite decades of effort, there is no practical vaccine against C. trachomatis diseases.
C. trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that colonizes and infects oculogenital mucosal surfaces. The organism exists as multiple serovariants that infect millions of people worldwide. Ocular infections cause trachoma, a chronic follicular conjunctivitis that results in scarring and blindness. WHO estimates that 300-500 million people are afflicted by trachoma (1), making it the most prevalent form of infectious preventable blindness (2). Urogenital infections are the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in both industrialized and developing nations (3). Moreover, STD are risk factors for infertility (4), the transmission of HIV (5) and human papilloma virus induced cervical neoplasia (6). Control of C. trachomatis infections is an important public health goal. However, aggressive measures aimed at managing these infections have not altered incidence or disease severity (7). Thus, there is a need in the art for effective control of chlamydial diseases (8).